Montgomery County MD: 18-Month Data Center Moratorium Advances to Full Council Vote

Montgomery County, MD’s Economic Development Committee voted unanimously on July 22, 2026 to recommend an 18-month moratorium on new data centers to the full council, with a second committee advancing the same measure the same day. The legislation includes a zoning text amendment blocking any data center above 25 megawatts. The full council vote was scheduled for July 28. This extends and codifies County Executive Marc Elrich’s earlier June executive order, which had imposed a 6-month pause. No hyperscaler is publicly named as the trigger, but multiple companies hold active proposals in the county.

Montgomery County joins neighboring Prince George’s County (2026-07-06–prince-georges-county-md-2-year-datacenter-moratorium-vote) in the DC-metro corridor’s datacenter-resistance wave, making this the most significant pair of adjacent-jurisdiction moratorium actions in the mid-Atlantic in 2026 — two of the wealthiest counties in the Washington suburbs both moving to cap large-load development within weeks of each other, ahead of New York’s statewide action the same week (2026-07-15–hochul-signs-eo62-first-statewide-hyperscale-moratorium).